About Earl Klatzel:
Earl was born 1957 in Calgary, AB where he lived until 2015 when he moved to Nanton.
After attending the Alberta College of Art in 1993, Earl has spent two decades with dedicated focus in creating a portfolio that captivates his musical interests and influences in the 20th century, showing great attentiveness towards history. His straightforward approach to life is characterized in the style, colors, and precision of his artwork.
The figure has always been the dominant drive in Earl's portfolio, but expands into the scenes from where the portraits evolved. He has always gauged his progress on the accuracy and emotion flowing from his portraits, on capturing their character to the sound of their music.
Earl's passion for the blues stems from his extraordinary interest in the 60s & 70s music he grew up with. As an avid collector of records since the age of 13, his lifelong obsession with the roots of rock & roll has grown into a vast source of knowledge. As a music fanatic and artist, it has provided him with the means for this visual trip through blues music history.
Southern Black music and its history is the main theme to Earl's portfolio, covering: early 20th century Blues and Jazz. His paintings are comprised of street scenes, backroad jukes, and rural junctions that dot the Mississippi Delta during the 1930s, and also portraits of the musicians who created the music.
Earl's creative technique with combining acrylic and oil mediums on canvas give his paintings an unmistakeable appearance. His re-defined approach to traditional painting methods allows him the versatility to achieve a greater contrast and visual depth, a quality that can only be seen in person. The painting's surfaces reflect no light sheen which gives them a unique visual clarity at any point in a room, and appear more as a window in time.
